CARVING TURKEY, THE DARCHINYAN WAY
By Rick Folstad

The Sweet Science
cle/6529/carving-turkey-darchinyan-way/
Jan 30 2009

The big talker with the big ego is predicting he’ll win the big fight.

He’s telling everyone how he’s going to "demolish, destroy and knock
out" the guy he’s scheduled to fight Saturday night at the Honda
Center in Anaheim, Calif.

The big talker is not angry or crazy. He isn’t shouting or swearing
and he seldom raises his voice. In fact, he sounds like a guy who is
calmly telling you the best way to carve a turkey.

Some of what the big talker says is a little hard to understand,
but that’s because he didn’t grow up in Dallas, Chicago or on the
tough streets of Brooklyn. Now living in Sydney, Australia, he’s from
Armenia, which is a long way from a southern drawl. He speaks English
with kind of an Armenian twang. You have to listen closely.

But you don’t have to understand every word to know what he’s
saying. It’s pretty basic stuff, dealing a lot with knockouts, pain
and destroying things. Heavy punches.

Along with the big talk and the big ego, he’s a southpaw with a
pretty big punch. And that’s what could decide this fight, the big
punch and who lands it first. Or last.

"Knockouts are my style," said Vic "The Raging Bull" Darchinyan
(31-1-1, 25 KOs) on a recent conference call promoting his
super-flyweight championship fight on SHOWTIME with Mexico ‘s Jorge
Arce (51-4-1, 39 KOs). "I believe I can knock out anyone, and Saturday
night, you will see a big knockout. No one can stay with me for 12
rounds. I punch too strong. If I catch him, it’s over."

Darchinyan knows a thing or two about catching things. A few years
ago, he caught a Nonito Donaire left hook and it was over. It’s his
only loss.

"Everyone keeps bringing up Donaire, but who is Donaire?" said
Darchinyan, who apparently suffered some serious memory loss from
the beating. "I want to fight him again in the future and I want to
destroy him."

That’s fine, but like Pinocchio’s nose, Darchinyan’s potential
hit list is long, impressive and still growing. Maybe he can get a
rematch with Donaire before he fights Manny Pacquiao ("I want to move
up and fight Pacquiao, but I will take my time") or right after he
faces super-bantamweight contender Israel Vazquez ("he gave me great
sparring but I’m confident I will defeat him if we fight"). He’s also
got his eye on WBO super-flyweight champ Fernando Montiel.

It’s smart to plan your future, to look ahead, but Darchinyan still
has to deal with Arce on Saturday night, a guy he says he dislikes.

"I am going to slow him down and punish him every round," Darchinyan
said. "I’m going to play20with him like a cat plays with a mouse
and show him how dumb he is. I want to thank his management because
they don’t want him any more. They just want to write him off after
the loss."

Asked if he might be underestimating Arce a little, Darchinyan said he
never underestimates an opponent. He just never shows them any respect.

"I believe any opponent I fight, I will dominate and destroy," he
said. "I believe I will knock (Arce) out, but I won’t knock him out in
one round. That would be too easy for him. I am going to demolish him,
destroy him and knock him out. He’s going to remember me all his life."

He’s probably right. You can be pretty sure Darchinyan is going to
remember Donaire all his life.

"Arce is a good puncher," Darchinyan said. "He’s had good
knockouts. But I am going to play him like a baby."

Darchinyan doesn’t do a lot of tiptoeing around. He stomps. And say
what you want about the guy, you’d want him covering your back in a
street fight.

And if he mouths off a little, maybe he’s earned the right to put
a little swagger in his walk. In the biggest win of his career, he
upset reigning super-flyweight champion Cristian Mijares, stopping
him in nine rounds this past November to win the WBA and WBC belts.

Not many figured Darchinyan had a chance against Mijares, who has
already beaten Arce. In a prediction poll, 25 out of 31 members of the
media picked Mijares to win. The six who picked Darchinyan included
Darius Ortiz of ESPN.com., who also picked the round.

"When I fought Mijares, I told him what I was going to do to him,"
Darchinyan said. "I told him I was going to break him down, that I
was going to smash him and destroy him and knock him out. And I did."

A man of his word.

"Watch carefully from the first round," Darchinyan said of his fight
with Arce. "I don’t want you to miss any of my artwork and my punches."

Should be a big night.